Addictions
Easiest Way for Car Rental
Posted on May 7, 2012 |
There are so many ways for car rental and most of the people want to book their car through Internet and this is simply called as erentals eRentals for car. One of the most famous and reliable online car rental providers on the web is erentals.co.uk who provides lot of services related to car hire or rental in many countries and cities. We can avail these services in airports, towns and some other important destinations. There are so many people have recognized to book their car for hire for the vacation and for any other purpose.
Their offers and services are more flexible to the users to find the best one and also to save money. We can hire a car from anywhere like hiring a car Bergamo, Hire a car Bergamo and so on. Some feel, it is really very difficult to hire a car in some of the rush cities by tourists like Hire a car Carcassonne and so on.
Great idea for a Blogging Web Site is not enough!
Posted on May 7, 2012 |
Every great blog web site starts with a great idea, and you cannot build a site without a success that endures. There are many great sites aimed at today’s bloggers, and competition for the attention of this demographic is fierce. To make your blogging web site stand out from the pack, you must offer something no other site currently has, or will do the same as the already popular site does not, but in a more impressive or valuable.
One way to determine the ideal model for your blog web site is a search site that managed to capture the audience and decide whether blogs can claim some of their strategies to help realize their vision. Of course you can add a unique touch to your project in order to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The fiercely individual surfers who are bloggers are the demographic that responds especially strongly to personality, you should consider how you can make your site unique and attractive feeling, lending his own voice and feel for the design of the site and its contents. Proposals and there are so many blogs and web sites about blogs on the Internet can be difficult to differentiate your blog for everyone else.
Addict in the Family! an Edited Extract From ‘understanding Addiction’
Posted on May 6, 2012 |
Because the person suffering from the addiction acts untrustworthy, the family stops trusting the person, and the members consciously or unconsciously start to distance themselves… When the person starts to act like his or her self again, not like an Addict, the family feels ashamed for having distanced themselves. They decide to reach out once more, only to feel betrayed once again.
Addiction never simply affects the addict alone. The addict pulls friends and loved ones into the vortext of their addiction, which can easily consume them all.
Friends and family try to make sense out of what is happening to their addicted loved-one. In trying to understand, people around the addict inevitably label him or her in an effort to cope with the changes.
What is really being labeled is the addictive personality. The addicted person may get labeled as ‘irresponsible,” ‘troubled,” ‘tense,” ‘strange,” or ‘weak.” If people suspect the true source of the problem, addicts will be labeled more aggressively, to reflect what is happening, and how others perceive them. Family members use many labels when speaking about the addict:
He’s a bum.
He eats too much.
She’s so irresponsible.
All he does is buy, buy, buy!
All she does is work, work, and work!
He does drink a little too much.
He’s oversexed.
You just can’t trust her anymore.
When the labeling process occurs, it’s a sign that the illness of addiction has progressed to the point where family and friends have noticed it and must protect themselves from the addictive personality. People sense that the addict doesn’t care about others. They will protect themselves by either removing themselves from his or her presence or trying to control the addicted person.
Thus, for families, the labeling process is an attempt to control what is happening. Addicts react in turn to protect themselves. In doing so, the addictive defensive system becomes even better developed.
For the addictive process to continue, the addicted person must learn how to deflect the concern of others. One of the most dangerous aspects of the labeling process is that, once the addicted person is given a new label, the family starts to adjust to the ‘new person.”
The ‘new person’ can indeed be given a significant place within the family, who adjust and may even become dependent on having him or her around! ‘The Addict” becomes a role within the family and starts to serve a vital purpose. Family members are caught in a dilemma: they hate the Addict but still love the person they once knew, who still exists within the addict. It’s not typical for family members to realize they’re dealing with an illness; as the addiction progresses within the family, everyone slowly adjusts to it.
Family members or others, such as co-workers, start to see what a good scapegoat a person suffering from addiction can be. They start to hate the Addict. As family members feel attacked, used, and abused by the Addict, they want to get even and fight back. Family members then become locked into the same fight that the Addict and the Self are locked into. The family tries to make the addict more responsible and respectful, but fails because a practicing addict is not able to change. The struggle continues, becoming a ritual embedded within the fabric of the family.
For example, suppose you love a family member who suffers from an addiction and is unable to love you back. You have deep mood swings, as the person you love swings from the Self to the Addict. One minute you may be relating quite well to the person’s Self; then something is said that awakens the Addict. The personality shift occurs, and the next minute you are hating the person, trying to figure out what happened. Perhaps you made a caring statement that triggered feelings of shame in the person and out came the Addict to protect his or her territory.
Because the person suffering from the addiction acts untrustworthy, the family stops trusting the person, and the members consciously or unconsciously start to distance themselves. This is a natural means of protection. When the person starts to act like his or her Self again, not like the Addict, family members start to feel ashamed for having distanced themselves. They decide to reach out once more, only to feel betrayed once again. This goes on and on until a family member cannot take it anymore and gives up trying to have any relationship with the person. But whenever family members feel the person’s Self trying to emerge, they will feel a longing to connect, but also a sense of shame for not wanting to for fear they will be hurt once again.
The Symptoms Of Addiction
Posted on April 28, 2012 |
Addictions are most commonly associated with drug and alcohol addiction. The truth is millions of people suffer from all kinds of addictions. Common addictions are to alcohol, controlled substances and prescription medicines. Additions you might not think are addictions are related to compulsive behaviors like gambling, shopping, food, the internet.
An addiction of any type is readily recognized by the fact that “it is not a matter of choice.” Individuals who are addicts do not have the ability to “decide” to stop abusing, for example, alcohol or a certain drug, or even the behaviors of gambling or shopping. Addictions affect the user, their family and friends.
What is an addiction? How does an addiction begin? When does the pattern of behavior become an addiction? Some individuals may be able to use a substance or engage in a behavior periodically over a period of years without becoming “addicted.” Other individuals are not capable of stopping and do become addicted.
Are addictions only in certain social, educational or ethnic groups? Absolutely not! There is no such thing as a typical addict.
The causes of addiction have been studied for several years. Addiction is caused by the emotion the substance or behavior brings about in the user. The body and mind become dependent on that feeling and seeks to maintain it.
There are addiction risk factors that make some people more likely than others to become addicts. Studies show that sometimes addictions can be hereditary. The child of an alcoholic may not grow up to be an alcoholic; however, they may become addicted to gambling or some other type of compulsive behavior as an adult.
Besides hereditary, individuals who grow up in families with abuse, neglect and who are impoverished are more likely to become addicts.
For most addicts, it can be extremely difficult to recognize that what they have associated as simply a habit is actually an addiction. While every individual is different there are some symptoms that are prevalent among most addicts and addictions:
Symptom # 1
Unable to meet responsibilities at home, school or office.
Symptom # 2
Continues to use substances or engage in behavior even when it is dangerous.
Symptom # 3
The need increases to engage in behavior or use more of a substance to achieve the same effect or feeling.
Symptom # 4
Has tried but failed to stop using the substance or end the behavior.
Symptom # 5
Continues to engage in the behavior or use the substances even when they are aware of the dangers.
Answering yes to three or more of the above symptoms during a 12 month period may show that you or a loved one has an addiction. The first step to treating an addiction is recognizing that it exists.
There is no cure for an addiction. Treatment and counseling can help an addict to learn how to control their behavior, withstand impulses and recognize the presence of a problem, but an addict is never cured. Treating an addiction can take years and requires ongoing support from friends, families and support groups.
A 12 step program can be particularly beneficial in treating an addiction. One of the most well known 12 step programs is AA, also known as Alcoholics Anonymous. There are similar programs for all types of addictions.
Living with an addiction requires a daily commitment and there is always the possibility of relapsing. An addict that has been “clean” for even 20 years can succumb to temptation just as they did decades before.
There are several treatment programs and centers that can help with the numerous types of addictions that are prevalent today. Many of them are anonymous. Support groups are also available to help family and friends who experience the effects of an addiction in a loved one.
The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Always consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program.
This article is FREE to publish with the resource box.
Acceptance and Addiction Recovery
Posted on April 27, 2012 |
The anti-social nature of drug addiction results in a “Life-Style”. The addict becomes out-of-synch with the social structure in which he must live. Addicts begin to associate only with other addicts or drug dealers and then transcend into the subculture of drug use. Paranoia triggered by many different things, and at many different levels, causes the addict to become less and less comfortable around anyone who is not doing the same as they are, partially because they are becoming criminals as well as addicts. Over a period of time, addiction requires particular justification, and rationalization to live with the results that it is producing. Gradually, these ego-defense mechanisms morph into an Anti Society philosophy created from “distorted thinking”. As the addict becomes more dysfunctional they inevitably go so far outside of the laws of society that they assume a profile that is easily identifiable, and as a result they get arrested. Usually, the crime factor progresses as the addiction progresses and the distorted thinking progresses. A completely changed set of principles, morals and beliefs is adopted. Unfortunately, this is usually gradual to the point of becoming a long-term, overall behavioral change.
The addiction progresses as the “Brain Chemistry” changes. As the brain chemistry changes the behavior changes. As the behavior changes the entire personality changes. Much of the change in brain chemistry has far reaching effects that are not easily overcome or reversed. The chemistry changes are in “Neurotransmitters”, which are at the heart of the relationship between the brain and the rest of the “Central Nervous System”. Specifically, lowered Dopamine levels are personality changers. Dopamine affects hunger, sleep, emotions and even the “body clock”. In their search for “Euphoria” craving for the drug-of-choice becomes incessant.
Sadly, this craving becomes less easily satisfied. As the brain changes, the drug is less capable of producing the same effects that it had on the brain before the changes. The addict literally has a “different brain”. The addict then is “chasing” the feeling that they originally derived from use of the drug. The problem is that the drug can no longer produce the feeling that the addicts’ memory has branded. Eventually the addict loses the “high” and is now just trying to get “well” or feel “normal”. Without a specific level of the drug in their system, the addict begins to feel generally “sick”. Tolerance for the drug increases incrementally with the length of the period of time that the addict has been using. As time progresses it takes more and more of the drug, that can no longer satisfy, to fulfill the needs or desires of the user. As the addict becomes more dysfunctional and the amount of the drug needed increases, the ability to obtain it becomes harder and requires methods that are almost alway illegal. More serious criminal behavior is adopted to obtain the amount of money needed to get the increasingly greater amount of the needed drug. The “Circle of Addiction” becomes “Life”. Need for the drug is followed by obtaining the money for the drug. This in-turn, is followed by obtaining the drug, and using the drug. Satisfaction decreases and the need increases. More drugs inspire more crime, and more crime results in more “time”… Life has become the drug-of-choice! Detoxification from the drug usually only happens after being arrested for a crime and being forcefully removed from the environment where the drug is accessible. Detoxification is most often the easy part for an addict. The chemistry changes in the brain that have been paralleled by behavior and personality changes, are not easily reversible. The drug is removed from the scenario but the distorted thinking has been “hardwired” into the addicts’ brain in the form of an anti-social belief system. Incarceration only adds to the dysfunction because jails and prisons also have an anti-social belief system in place, of their own, developed by criminals of all kinds. This sick addict, whose ability to think is very poor, easily succumbs to the belief system in place wherever he is incarcerated, only too easily. As the length of terms of incarceration increases with the severity of crimes committed, the length of time outside of incarceration decreases, and criminal behavior becomes as strong and as much of a problem as addictive behavior. Combined, they are a very difficult state of being to change. Very few people, if any, have the ability to make the needed changes on their own, if they are truly an addict.
Some form of structured and rehabilitative “Help” becomes a necessity if the addict is ever to return to being able to function in society. Strict rules and routines are needed. Acceptance of the need for help is important. It’s important because the nature of addiction is that it produces “denial” of the “problem”. Coming out from under the distorted thinking is nearly impossible because the “brain” is the most severely affected part of the person that has become an “Addict”! 12-Step programs and a limited number of Christian based programs are the only source of help that is not expensive beyond the financial capability of most addicts and their families. Acceptance becomes the “key” factor for Recovery from this dread disease. Frequently multiple episodes of formal treatment are the only solution or answer. Yes, multiple episodes, because “Relapse” into addiction is usually inevitable as a result of how complicated this problem is. Physiology, psychology and even pharmacology may all factor into treatment of this chronic, progressive, and fatal disease. The 12-step program’s fundamental requirement of “Acceptance” has produced “Miracles”, but should we rely on miracles to solve our country’s greatest problem? Treatment in a controlled environment enables the addict to more easily discover and realize the need to identify and “accept” that they need to change their primary way of thinking, and behavior. In treatment, this reality is also reinforced by “peers” who share a common problem. This “acceptance” must be complete and must be constantly reinforced over a long period of time. Its much easier to do when those around you have to do the same thing. You don’t become an addict overnight and you can’t Recover overnight. Before an addiction is properly addressed, it has usually developed over a period of many years, sometimes even decades. It is hard for a human being to accept that a great portion of life has been thrown away. Shame, guilt and fear that come with sobriety and the restoration of the thinking process, are common complications for the addict. These feelings are so difficult to deal with, that they are often regarded as the primary cause of relapse into using. Acceptance of defeat is also a stumbling block, because no one likes losing. Thus it becomes crucial to move past the defeat and focus on the accomplishment of becoming “Sober”. “Sobriety” is a term commonly used in both AA and NA in regard to abstention from both alcohol and other drugs. Narcotics Anonymous declares regularly, in their meetings, that “Alcohol is a drug, period”. Most alcoholics of the older generation resent this claim. Current knowledge supports the NA declaration and acknowledges that all are mood altering substances. Acceptance of this idea is crucial, because most “drug addicts” begin a relapse with the use of alcohol, often deceiving their selves into believing alcohol is not a drug so they’ll be able control us of it.
Acceptance, acceptance, acceptance, it just runs through the philosophies of Recovery like a river. Before you can do this you have to accept that. Before you can do that you have to accept this. Accept it! Accept it! Accept that the Therapist or Counselor knows what they’re talking about. Accept the fact that you are sick. Accept that you have become dysfunctional. Accept that things will only get better the longer you are clean and sober. Accept that this is wrong and that is right. Accept help! Accept the belief that Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are and will always be an integral part of long-term maintenance of “Sobriety”! An inescapable fact is accepting that not only your body has to recover from using the drugs, but that your mind will probably need even more time to recover from using them. Accept that people are not going to immediately accept your intention, ability or desire to change.
Quoting AA’s Big Book, Third Edition, Page 449: “And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world, by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be change in me and in my attitudes.” The 12-Step program and the Recovery process are not just an excursion into learning how to stop drinking or using. These concepts are a “Journey” into a simple plan for learning how to live life on life’s terms. End of Discussion! For more recovery go to my Site, Addiction: Why Me?